Boat Trip to Gaza Was a Media Washout
An Israeli blockade-busting publicity stunt drew less attention than hoped for.
Jerusalem-based Free Gaza spokeswoman Angela Godfrey-Goldstein kept reporters apprised of the 30-hour journey’s progress via rather breathless emails sent several times a day. A correspondent for the BBC News wrote a couple of diary entry reports about preparations for the trip in Cyprus, too. Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman did a podcast interview that is posted here (with accompanying transcript).
Al Jazeera loved the story, even doing a 25-minute Inside Story report about it — complete with a screaming match between former Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin (a.k.a. “the Rotweiler”) and International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Arraf. Part one of the AJ report is here; part two is here.
The Israeli media pretty much ignored the story — except for Haaretz, of course. And the international media lost interest as soon as Israel announced it did not intend to stop the boats from landing or its passengers from disembarking. (No blood, no story.)
So the boats landed without incident. After basking in the excited greetings of several hundred Palestinians who gathered on the beach, the passengers disembarked and went off to visit Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Halper, the Israeli Jew in the group, declined to meet Haniyeh. Instead he made his way back to Israel, via Erez Crossing. Since Israeli citizens — even those who hold foreign citizenship — are prohibited from entering Gaza, Halper was detained by Israeli police and taken for questioning at Ashkelon police station. Ultimately the police decided to arrest Halper and hold him overnight in lockup. He was arraigned today in court and is currently out on bail while the attorney general decides whether or not to indict him.
Halper told PJM that he chose not to meet Haniyeh because he wanted to keep the focus on Israel. “If I had met with Haniyeh, all the media attention would have been on that instead of on what I really came to highlight, which is the blockade.”
Asked whether he didn’t think that being associated with kooky people like Yvonne Ridley detracted from Free Gaza’s credibility, Halper answered, “Oh, she was not the kookiest one on board.” But he added, “You cannot control every person who joins an organization. I think we’re a solid group and we really accomplished something positive.”
For many observers, however, the Free Gaza expedition was nothing more than a pointless media stunt. It garnered little international media attention, did not improve the lives of Gazans, and is unlikely to result in the Israeli authorities’ deciding to relinquish control of Gaza’s borders. Nor is Hamas likely to disavow terror or recognize Israel’s right to exist.
In a region where violence and political upheaval are daily occurrences, it will take more than a media event to effect real change.
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Lisa Goldman is a freelance Canadian-Israeli journalist, who blogs at On the Face. She lives in Tel Aviv.
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8 Comments
1. Judy, NYC:it wasn’t editorial integrity that prevented the usual drivel from the msm. we would have been the hapless recipients of overblown coverage of this crappy ship of fools,but the press had other, more important obama foot washing to do. it takes quite a bit of derangement to twist logic and demand that isreal withdraw its vigilance. in securing its borders and shutting off access to those who perpetrate homicidal assaults against isreali citizens, isreal by any civilized world standards is well within its rights. the peculiar notion that it has no right to do this is one of the oddities, among many, of anti-semites. in this through the looking glass world, it is acceptable for hamas to spew a continual stream of hatred against the jews ensuring a new generation of anti-western islamic fanatics. the media by supporting the terrorists in gaza ironically deny citizens freedom from hamas, not isreal. so,one might ask, whose occupation is it.
Aug 31, 2008 - 6:08 am 2. Michael T:These are the “Useful Idiots” so described by Stalin with such contempt. The Israelis did the correct thing by essentially doing nothing. Probably the boaters were hoping that the Israeli would at least put a shot across their bows. It ended up being a non-event. By the way, what possible purpose would the 5000 balloons do for the Palis?
Aug 31, 2008 - 8:32 am 3. Filipa Mendes:Can one detect a measure of Palestinian-coverage fatigue? The fact is that journalists may be interested in Palestinians, but 99 per cent of the population is not.
Aug 31, 2008 - 1:47 pm 4. Cletus:Last time I checked Israel stopped occupying Gaza in 2005. It wasn’t just the soldiers who left, but all Jews.
Sep 1, 2008 - 5:55 am 5. Botsi:Who cares?
Sep 2, 2008 - 3:24 am 6. Lynn:This is a story of a non-story.
Funniest part of the story, Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of Tony Blair, is now stuck in Gaza. She didn’t have her passport stamped nor had a visa. She wants to leave via Israel. They are refusing her entry. It’s still up in the air.
Sep 4, 2008 - 3:20 pm 7. Pajamas Media » Tony Blair’s Sister-in-Law’s Gaza Media Show:[...] arrived three weeks ago by boat, as part of the Free Gaza expedition that sailed from Cyprus (click here for PJM’s coverage). Most of the 44-member group elected to leave the same way they arrived. [...]
Sep 17, 2008 - 1:10 am 8. Scum-of-the-earth Galloway blames the Old Testament and ‘Undercover Mosque’ for inciting violence on Iranian TV » Winds Of Jihad:[...] arrived three weeks ago by boat, as part of the Free Gaza expedition that sailed from Cyprus (clickhere for PJM’s coverage). Most of the 44-member group elected to leave the same way they arrived. Ms. [...]
Sep 17, 2008 - 7:09 pm